Keep in mind that hospitals are not required to report Acinetobacter baumannii cases to anyone. Often the victims themselves and their families are not told they have it. Occasionally doctors will tell the patient they have one of the strains from Iraq. Rarely the staff will tell the family how to keep from spreading it or becoming infected themselves.Confirmed cases of Acinetobacter baumannii are difficult to come by. These locations and cases are confirmed.Cases of Completely Drug Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii were reported by hospital workers as early as 2005.Rehab Centers, Nursing Homes and other long term care facilities are rapidly becoming infected. Often patients with Completely Drug Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii are sent to nursing homes to die because there is nothing left to do for them.

February 2009My primitive map has outlived it's usefulness.Acinetobacter baumannii has successfully spread throughout our country and outbreaks are occurring all around the world

I'm going to keep it here as a reminder of how hard we have tried over the last four years to keep this from happening.

We are now facing a health care system in this country that is infecting patients with not just one but two or more drug resistant organisms together and they are killing patients needlessly.You can become infected just by having tests run.Outpatient surgery is also dangerous though getting out of a facility as fast as possible is still advisable.

MRSA treatment has cleared the path for the gram negative organisms likeAcinetobacter baumannii, Psuedomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pnuemoniaC diff is proliferating in our filthy hospitals, taking advantage of patients on antibiotics and wears the body down extremely fast.Funerals for AB victims are now closed casket due to the risk of infectionAnd the hospitals have gotten away with it.

!!!!!! Stop letting them keep their dirty secrets !!!!!

Lawyers are afraid of them. The media doesn't want to lose the advertising money which the healthcare industry seems to have so much of.

Holmes Regional in Melbourne Florida MRSA, C diff, and more, even the staff is getting sick from something and don't sign an organ donor form while your there.

Any city with a VA Medical Center likely has infected medical facilities.

Brownsville Ab patient dies June 30thbeware, you are on fire with Extremely Drug Resistant Acinetobacter baumanniiBrownsville TX has 19 reported cases. This is a huge number of cases to be reported. McAllen, Harlingen, Weslaco, San Benito be on the lookout.

IraqibacterA relatively benign bug becomes a highly lethal pathogen, known to U.S. soldiers as Iraqibacter.Watch the Nova Science segment herebut please note the continued fallicy that soldiers are picking up Acinetobacter baumannii on the streets in Iraq. They are being given the Acinetobacter in the military evacuation and health systems.

'Hospital bug killed 18 Doce de Octubre patients'According to allegations made in a report in today's El País that have since been publicly refuted in a statement released by hospital bosses, the deaths of 18 out of 252 patients at the 12 de Octubre Hospital in Madrid infected by the Acinetobacter Baumannii bacteria since February 2006 were as a direct result. In total, the report claims, 101 of the 252 affected patients have since died, and, in the majority cases, the infection was found to have been a contributory factor.The outbreak of the multi-drug resistant bacteria has taken twenty months to contain and has forced the demolition of the old intensive care unit, from where it had proven impossible to eradicate, and which has been completely re-built.

Superbug Scare hits Coventry's University HospitalA ward had to be closed because of the bug, thought to be carried by soldiers returning from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.Staff at the hospital in Walsgrave identified three patients with the bacterium acinetobacter baumannii known as MRAB.

Brownsville Texas Outbreak Almost 20 People Tested Positive for Rare InfectionMonday , April 28, 2008Deadly drug resistant bacteria may have come from Iraq BROWNSVILLE - A total of 19 people have tested positive for a rare infection sometimes linked to soldiers coming home from Iraq at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Brownsville.

Soldiers blamed for deadly superbugby Michele Paduano BBCEight patients died from a superbug after a new strain was introduced to a hospital where soldiers injured in Iraq are treated, a freedom of information request by the BBC has revealed.The bug is resistant to virtually all known antibioticsWatch Video here

The Dutch army found itself battling a new enemy yesterday in the east of the Netherlands. "Soldiers in action against resistant bacteria" is the headline in AD, which features a front-page photo of servicemen and women in full camouflage gear setting up an emergency intensive care facility in a hospital car park in the province of Twente.

Two intensive care patients at the hospital were found to be infected with the rare Acinetobacter baumannii bacteria, which - like the more common hospital bug MSRA - is resistant to most antibiotics. The two are now in isolation and a sign reading "do not enter unless absolutely necessary" has been slapped on the rest of the ward.

The 14 patients currently on the ward will stay put. "We can only start disinfecting when the last patient has been discharged ... which could take up to three months depending on their condition," explained a hospital spokesman.

New intensive care patients will go to the military containers in the car park. AD reports that "there is a similar intensive care unit at the Dutch military camp in Afghanistan". "So we've got the experience to get everything set up quickly," adds one of the soldiers with a wink.

St Anges Reports Cases of Deadly BacteriaSt. Agnes Hospital reports they do have confirmed cases of the deadly bacteria acinetobacter baumannii, believed to have been the cause of death for three people at the University of Maryland Medical Center nearly one week ago.

In a statement released by the hospital, spokesperson John Welby said, "St. Agnes Hospital has identified a handful of cases of Acinetobacter baumannii and has put in place an aggressive infection control plan to contain it."Welby would not confirm where the bacteria was found at St. Agnes and how many people were infected. Stay with ABC2 News and abc2news.com for updates.

Four patients in an intensive-care unit at University of Maryland Medical Center have been isolated after lab tests showed that they have a relatively uncommon bacterial infection that is resistant to antibiotics.

Doctors identified the bacterium as Acinetobacter baumannii, known to attack wounded military personnel and hospital patients with weakened immune systems.

The isolated patients at the hospital have a treatment team assigned to them, members of which wear gowns and gloves, and the hospital has minimized risks that the infection might spread to its nine other intensive-care units, said Dr. Harold Standiford, medical director of infection control.

Standiford said the hospital acted after routine lab tests showed that one intensive-care patient was infected late last month.

Dr. David Blythe, a state epidemiologist, reviewed the hospital's plans after they were implemented Jan. 4.

"We want to keep this very well walled off so our other patients are safe," Standiford said.

Unlike MRSA, another antibiotic-resistant bacterium that can migrate from hospital wards to the general population, A. baumannii does "not hit healthy individuals," he said.

But the bacterium is capable of causing the deaths of people who are very sick or frail.

Three patients who had been in the same UM Medical Center intensive-care unit for several weeks have died in the two weeks since the bacterium was discovered, but Standiford said doctors might never know whether A. baumannii contributed to the deaths.

About 102 military personnel wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq were infected with the bacterium at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and at Water Reed Army Medical Center between Jan. 1, 2002, and Aug. 31, 2004, according to a report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cases also have been reported over the years in hospital intensive-care units in the United States and Europe.

"The high level of antimicrobial resistance is a challenge to clinicians treating A. baumannii infections," the report said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- For years, doctors have warned about the overuse of antibiotics for fear that bacteria could become more resistant. Now, there is more evidence they were right. Stronger bacteria are invading hospitals across the country and Louisville. Target 32’s Paul Moses discovered anyone can be a carrier and not find out until it’s too late. “She never really understood what was going on. One of the nurses had to write down ancinetobactor baumannii on paper, give it to her and say ‘look it up,’” Marcie Hascall Clark said. “This is what your husband has.”

That’s how Clark, an educator on infectious bacteria, described the situation of a Sellersburg woman whose husband contracted two severe infections during heart surgery at a Louisville hospital: MRSA, a staph infection, sometimes called a flesh-eating bacteria, and Acinetobactor Baumannii, which first surfaced in Vietnam and has been spreading.

“Do consumers, people who are going to the hospital, have a way of knowing if they're going to a clean hospital or a dirty hospital?” Infection Control Advisor Dr. Bill Templeton said. “They really don't.”

Templeton advises several local healthcare facilities on infection control and he said hospitals aren’t required to share infection statistics with the public. The Health Department doesn’t track it either. In fact, reporting is voluntary – even though bacteria like Acinetobactor Baumannii can be transmitted from countertops, curtains and other mundane surfaces on which it can live.

Clark knows about Acinetobactor Baumannii personally. Before she ran a Web site educating people about the dangers of hospital-contracted infections, her husband, a bomb disposal contractor in Iraq, almost died from blast and a Baumannii infection.

“It’s completely changed our lives,” Clark said. “He has permanent damage from the drugs for acinetobactor baumannii, in addition to disabilities from the blast.”

Clark said even domestic strains of Acinetobactor are nearly resistant to all antibiotics. Clark said hospitals need to do more to educate patients on the risks.

“That's what made me mad,” Clark said. “My husband come through it alive, which a lot of people aren't now, but, the fact that I wasn't told anything."

Infection control experts said communication and education are the keys to prevention and seemingly simple things could make a big difference.

“Hand hygiene, keep your hands clean, soap and water or primarily using an alcohol based hand rub,” Dr. Ruth Carrico said. “The second is ensuring that the environment in a healthcare facility is clean, not sterile, but clean. And the third, and maybe the most important of them all, is that we have an adequate control over the use of antibiotics, both inside a healthcare facility, but just as important to the consumer, is making sure we're not overusing, misusing antibiotics."

Soon, doctors said hospitals might need to isolate everyone who wants to check in until screenings are done for bacteria, but such a system wouldn’t be cheap.

“Within the next year I think most hospitals in this country will have to start doing some kind of culturing with patients when they're admitted,” Templeton said.

In Scandinavia, hospitals have been screening for bacteria on patients for more than 20 years. Now, they have the lowest post-operative infection rate in the world.

“Hospitals can fix this,” Clark said. “It's money. It comes down to money. It comes down to paying for what you need to do."

A rare drug-resistant bacteria is becoming more common inarea hospitals, due in part to military personnel bringing ithome from Iraq, local health experts believe.The bacteria, Acinetobacter baumannii, is not a threat tohealthy people. However, officials say it can be dangerous forpeople who are already ill and have weak immune systems,because it causes wound infections that can lead to death.There are antibiotics that can combat the bacteria, but in rareinstances nothing will work, health experts say.Dr. Anthony Harris, an infectious disease specialists at theUniversity of Maryland Medical Center, said the infectionprimarily affects two groups of people: the very ill andwounded soldiers who have served in Iraq.

Some returning troops bringing rare bacteria back to TennesseeBy CLAUDIA PINTOStaff Writer - THE TENNESSEEANA rare drug-resistant bacteria is becoming more common in Tennessee hospitals, due in part to military personnel bringing it home from Iraq, local health experts believe.

The bacteria, Acinetobacter baumannii, is not a threat to healthy people. However, officials say it can be dangerous for people who are already ill and have weak immune systems, because it causes wound infections, pneumonia and bloodstream infections that can lead to death.

Health experts don't know how much returning soldiers contribute to the bacteria's spread. But they all agree the bacteria is spreading.

"It's been on the increase everywhere," said Dr. Juli Horton, an infectious disease physician at Centennial Medical Center in Nashville. "It's probably going to be something that we'll hear more and more about."

Dr. Tom Talbot, chief hospital epidemiologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says just a few years ago the bacteria was detected among patients there once or twice a year. Today the hospital is seeing it once a month or more.

"It used to be barely on the radar, and now it's definitely on the radar," Talbot said. "It will be the next antibiotic-resistant bacteria of interest."

Horton said the situation is similar at Centennial: "We are seeing it with increasing frequency."

There are antibiotics that can combat the bacteria, but in rare instances nothing will work, health experts say.

Dr. Anthony Harris, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Maryland Medical Center, said the infection primarily affects two groups of people: the very ill and wounded soldiers who have served in Iraq.

"It's seen a lot in veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan," said Harris, who is an expert on Acinetobacter and has several grants to study antibiotic-resistant bacteria. "We don't know at this point how much of a factor the veterans are."

No one, including state and federal health agencies, is tracking the number of people who have become sickened with the bacteria. But the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an increasing number of cases at military medical facilities in 2004. More recent data is not available.

"There's no question that Acinetobacter baumannii caused a challenge in military medical facilities," said Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC.

Still, Srinivasan said, the increase began before the war in Iraq, and there are other factors that play much more of a role.

Ever improving medical care allows very sick people to be kept alive longer, and this population is more susceptible to becoming infected. Also, several types of drug-resistant bacteria are on the rise because of the overuse of antibiotics.

Other epidemiologists agree other factors are involved.

"It's part of a larger picture," Horton said. "It's one of several bacteria we are concerned about. We have very few drugs to treat it."

It's unclear whether Fort Campbell's Blanchfield Army Community Hospital has seen an increase in cases. A military spokeswoman said a doctor at the hospital cannot answer questions about the situation there because numbers aren't kept.

The Fort Campbell hospital serves the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, which is returning from a second tour of duty in Iraq.

Molly Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the Veterans Affairs hospital in Nashville, did not return three phone calls for comment.

Acinetobacter baumannii lives in dirt and water around the world but is believed to be more common in the Middle East. One possible explanation for the many cases among American soldiers is thattheir wounds become infected when exposed to Iraqi dirt.

Horton said that soldiers returning from Iraq sometimes carry the bacteria on their skin, but the average civilian is not likely a carrier. Healthy people can be carriers without becoming sick and spreading it to others.

The bacteria can be passed along through a simple handshake. But people typically become infected when the bacteria enters an open wound.

Studies have shown that it's possible for the bacteria to live on surfaces for as long as 20 days. It can be easily killed with commonly used disinfectant agents.

"Health-care facilities have to be vigilant," Srinivasan said.

Srinivasan said the reports of increased cases from local doctors may be representative of what's happening all over the country.

"Anecdotally, we are getting calls from health-care facilities across the country that are reporting more cases," he said. "These reports are becoming more common."

THE TENNESSEANKatie Allison Granju , Producer

The Devil Roams the ITUHeadlines MaltaAt St Luke's Hospital..."The Devil" roams the ITUMultiple resistant bacterium Acinetobacter could be deadlyOwen Galea 24 February 2007The Intensive Therapy Unit at St Luke’s Hospital has been “attacked” by a new bacterium, Acinetobacter, which is resistant to all antibiotics.A well known medical practitioner at St Luke’s nicknamed this bacterium as “The Devil”.He said: “During these last few weeks we did not have a problem with MRSA but we have been battling multiple resistant bacteria.”Read more.....

March 2, 2009Two patients die at Roseland Community Hospital in Chicago with Acinetobacter baumannii

February 2, 2009Patient dies from Acinetobacter baumannii and Cdiff coinfection at Trident Hospital in North Charleston SCHospital claims he died from a lung condition that he didn't have when he went in

January 2009Civillian Contractor takes Ab from Landstuhl to Memphis in 2005 here

March 24Hospital worker job threatened when she refuses to care for patient with completely drug resistant Ab without taking full precautions

March 7Toledo Hospital moving Acinetobacter patients out because their insurance ran out.

February 17A 49 year old woman dies at Ochsner Hospital in New Orleans Lousianna from Completely Drug Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii.Her Ab was tested for every antibiotic and was resistant to them all.

February 9,Ab spreads to other facilities in Baltimore Maryland

February 5,Patient reported infected with Acinetobacter baumannii in Dearborn Michigan

January 25,St. Agnes in Baltimore Md reports cases

January 17,Columbus Ohio Ab patient life support pulled

January 16, 2008University of Maryland Medical Center reports 4 patients in isolation for Acinetobacter baumannii infections which began in December. They claim not to know whether or not Ab attributed to three deaths in this ICU during this time. That means they had Ab so we're talking about 7 known cases.

January 14, 2008Patient who went into Grant Medical Center in Columbus Ohio for surgery fighting for her life with Acinetobacter baumannii sepsis

January 12, 2008Otherwise healthy Toledo Ohio hospital worker infected with Acinetobacter baumannii and MRSA fighting for her life. Husbands says hospitals in this area are having a bad problem with Acinetobacter baumannii.

November 24, 2007More reports from Lee Memorial Hospital in Ft Myers Florida. Infectious disease protocals not being followed and 7th and 8th floors are heavily infected.

DitchingHospitals are ditching patients withAb and other drug resistant infections to nursing homes to dieThis keeps them from having to report an outbreak in their facility as well as keeping their failure rate private.report ditchingjunglem@yahoo.com